ZIN 33

The latest Zumba instructors DVD is great. Joy Smith is featured in the dance krewe, and the one-on-one instructor, Hermann Melo, is fabulous.  He's a Columbian living in Paris, and must be trained in jazz...what style. Gonna learn a few.

Zumba helps Sciatica, but...

...if you're really spasmed out with back pain, it's best you de-Zumbify for a while. 

Here's what I've learned to do when sciatica flares up.

At the first sign of back pain:

• Take Extra Strength Aleve or Advil as directed.
• Get an herbal sleeping aid, a heating pad, and an ice wrap thingy.
• Start applying ice for 20 minutes, heat for 20 minutes as much as possible.
• Focus on keeping/restoring the natural curve in your back: You will be tempted to hunch over because this takes the pressure off the bulging disc, which is bumping up against a huge, ridiculously sensitive nerve bundle. Keeping your back gently arched will hurt, but it's the only way to get the bulging disc to back off and slip back into its home.
• Begin this series of exercises and repeat every two hours:

1. Lie flat with face down, breathe, relax abdomen, let low back sag. Breathe five deep breaths
2. Raise your torso up on your forearms at the elbow. Keep hips relaxed on floor. When you get to max, take a deep breath and feel your spine sag at the low back. It will hurt. Do it anyway. Stay up for a second or two to get the relaxed abdomen and sagging spine, then lower. Repeat 5 times
3. Now place your hands on either side of your head and raise your torso up all the way, straighten your arms (OUCH!), but leave your hips on the floor. Breathe out and let the belly relax and feel the spine sag, then come down again. Do this ten times. Yes. Even though it kills, do it.

If after a day of doing this every 2 hours you cannot sleep due to sciatic pain, get a prescription of Muscle Relaxer (Flexeril) and take as directed. If it's 5mg and you still can't sleep, take another one, plus a double dose of the herbal sleep bills. Flexeril is not a narcotic, it just makes your muscles sort of floppity. You might sleep a lot, because chances are you've not been getting good rest for awhile, even if you think you have.

My pain really settled on the left buttock and hip area. When you do the exercises, you can arc your upper body toward the pain side, and this will focus more pressure on the offending area of the disc, but it hurts like hell to do it. You will get used to the pain and will learn how to work with it. Eventually you will feel the pain moving around, hopefully ending up toward the middle of your back. This is a good sign.

If it's scary-bad, you are way too stressed out, and need to stop moving...stay home for a day and do the exercises, heat, ice, and muscle relaxers religiously. Do not attempt any forward stretches yet.  If you have a bathtub, try a hot bath with epsom salts.. Cancel vigorous exercise plans for the next week. Drink plenty of water. Calm down. Move slow.

The next day, repeat the above but start walking around a little. If your back keeps tweaking out, stop, call in sick, and take one more day of rest/exercises/Flexeril. It may feel good now to do some careful hamstring stretches and down-facing dog-type poses, but be careful not to open up too much before you are healed or the disc will try to squish back out.

By day three you should be able to get around. In fact, it's not good at this point to lie around, as your back needs to be loosened up and lubricated with movement. Walking is best. Keep doing the backward bending exercises as often as you can. Now only use the Flexeril at night. Move around gingerly and try to keep the arch in your back.  If your back tweaks, go slow like an old person. Avoid twisting your upper body! Keep everything aligned!

Start doing cat-and-camels, child's pose, pelvic lifts, and other recommended limbering and strengthening exercises.

By day four you should be much better. Remember to keep your natural arch, and keep doing the backward stretches a few times each day for at least a week.

Try not to drink so much coffee. You need to chill.

Ego Down

Biggest learning of B-2 training: it's all about your students. Sure, it's fun to break out of your rut and get licensed, put on the cool instructor clothes, and be the leader. But if you are a ham like me, watch yourself. I have learned to take care of my people and forget about putting on a show. Leading in the spirit of service creates a deeper. more nourishing connection. The mutual exchange of gratitude is profound by the end of the class.

What it feels like to lead Zumba

It's an amazing experience to put the music on, start moving, and have a class full of strangers eagerly start doing what you are doing. As the class progresses,  I watch the faces and bodies of each person as s/he works to learn, improve, and personalize the steps. Soon a deep connectedness happens... I feel really touched that they are all here, trusting me to lead them through the hour. I whoop and holler, and usually nobody else does (unless Graciella is there), which makes me wonder if it's obnoxious, but I don't care because it's my joyful noise, and I really, really can't help it. By the end of the class, I am so grateful and full of love for the dear people who came to dance with me.

More Training

Signed on for Joy's Zumba Basics Level 2 in February. I figure I'll just keep kickin' it with this until I fall over. Can't wait to improve my Samba and Bhangra. As for the Toning training coming up in January, My 56-year-old upper arm flaps may be beyond hope, but that doesn't mean I can't work it in.

ZumbaLove

One of the coolest things about Zumba is its core value of non-judgement. You cannot be a true Zumbian if you are catty. I made the effort to introduce myself and talk with a woman who'd been an irritation to me class after class. I was complaining to others, and being a self-righteous poopy pants. People who irritate you are simply a reflection of a weakness in yourself...they are what my spiritual teacher, Angeles Arrien, calls a "smoky mirror." (sorry Chris, you've heard this schpeel 1000 times).

So I think my new years resolution is forming in the way of walking up to my smoky mirrors with windex and a soft cloth...which is why I am going to the NVC/MFCC mat with my sister in January. And hopefully a Zumba class together.

xxoo

Dirty Dancing

I was talking with my friend the other day about the cultural differences between "acceptable" or at least "understood" latin dance stylings in pubic settings. What may be a lively and passionate expression of life in one context may look to spectators who've never been to the dance's country of origin like, well, a graceful, erotic, extended humping session. I just watched, for the first time, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. The defense rests. I'm out on the next plane...